Letters: pension oversight, solar power and more

Who’s minding the money?

In response to “Report assails pension oversight” (Sept. 6): Why does it not surprise me to find out that the school system pension funds are not being properly audited? Is there anything about that entire system that is being well-managed, or even managed at all?

And, why does it also not surprise me to see nothing in your article about the chain of command responsible for those audits being fired? Can you imagine what would happen in a private company if the CEO found out that his people responsible for these audits – representing millions (perhaps billions) in assets had no oversight? I’m sure the people in charge will continue to make wildly inflated salaries with excessive benefits, wait for this to blow over, then give raises and promotions to everyone involved.

Letters and commentary policy

The U-T welcomes and encourages community dialogue on important public matters. Please visit this page for more details on our letters and commentaries policy.

In microcosm this is the root cause of what’s wrong with our government today. We the people have no expectation that the staff we hire to manage our business will act responsibly, there are never any consequences for failure, so who cares? Write your state congressman today, tell them you care! – Todd Maddison, Oceanside

A need for contrasts

In “State’s solar farms hit electricity milestone” (Business reports, Sept. 5), “1.1 gigawatts, or 1.1 billion watts,” in a vacuum, sounds like a massive amount of electricity. The article, unfortunately, is woefully incomplete. Without knowing the total amount of generating capacity needed by the state, these figures mean little.

Also, it would helpful to know what total land area these solar farms occupy in comparison with the footprint that natural-gas generators producing a like amount of electricity would occupy. While we are at it, what is the relative reliability and efficiency of these two sources. When you run an article on wind farms I will probably have similar questions.

Oh, I almost forgot: What is the impact on wild life and native vegetation of these solar farms? – Chuck Wickersham, University City

‘Les Miz’ misery

After reading James Hebert’s review of “Les Misérables” (“Revival captures the paradoxical appeal of ‘Les Miz,’ ” (Night & Day Weekend, Aug. 31), I was looking forward to seeing the venerable Broadway hit at the Civic Theatre last weekend.

I was dismayed, however, by the addition of several offensive elements to the show. I’m referring to three scenes where a 2-foot-long baguette, a wine bottle and some other item were used to mimic an erection, and [the use of other props].

My wife and I saw “Les Misérables” on Broadway in New York City in 2008, and friends who went with us enjoyed the show at the Ahmanson Theater in L.A. last year. We agreed that these [and other] non-family-friendly elements were not part of those renditions of “Les Misérables.”

Finally, I happened to be sitting next to a Filipino-American family with three young girls dressed in their Sunday best. So why did these girls – or the rest of us – have to be exposed to these sexualized elements? – Mike Yorkey, Encinitas

Highway litter blights city

I recently had visitors here in San Diego. They were not very impressed with how dirty the streets and highways are. Most of the freeways and interchanges our littered with trash and weeds. Try driving south from Interstate 8 on [state Route] 15 all the way to where it insects with I-5 north and see what they mean. Trash and weeds everywhere and having been there a long time. So many of the streets have trash and weeds, particularly at intersections that have traffic islands. Again having been there a long time.

When I moved here in 1966, San Diego was one of the cleanest cities I ever lived in. Not anymore. What has happened? Why are the streets and highways such an eyesore? As much as San Diego relies on tourism you would think that keeping our city clean would be a major priority. Our visitors certainly took notice. They come from a city even larger than San Diego. Having been there I can say without a doubt it is much cleaner, so just being large is no excuse for not getting things cleaned up.

Don’t the city leaders drive around and see how bad so many of our streets and highways look? The people in charge of cleaning our city should be ashamed of how bad things look in so many places. Somebody is getting paid way too much, and doing a bad job.

San Diego is one of the best cities in the U.S., it deserves better than it is getting when it comes to our streets and highways. – John Norris, San Diego

Water use cut, but rates to climb

I am having a difficult time understanding that the water rates are going up because we use less water. When the city asked, we took out our lawns, put in xeriscape plants, rock and brick; we recycle shower water, recycle wash water and take quick showers. Now we are going to be asked to pay the same amount that people who did none of the above pay. It looks like I am paying for them to abuse the water consumption. Is this fair? – Linda Calder, San Diego